Today we’d like to introduce you to Fray Forde and Catherine Holly.
Fray and Catherine, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We are Fray Forde & Catherine Dee Holly, the couple behind Coki Productions, named after our furry Pomeranian. We first met in South Carolina on the set of Five Point Mend, a sci-fi thriller co-directed by Catherine and starring Fray. We coincidentally moved to Atlanta at the same time, immediately fell in love (a year later), and dreamt about making projects together. Yet, instead of dreaming for too long, we set out to make it a reality.
We put our skills and talent together to create our film love-child Good Hair. Good Hair received tremendous festival success, including being screened at the world’s largest comedy festival, Just for Laughs with the Eat My Shorts Competition hosted by Kevin Hart. Our newest project, Pop-Pop Is Dead, premiered at LiveNation’s Buckhead Theatre to over 600 attendees in Atlanta, GA, in August 2018 and is available on Vimeo. We are now based in Los Angeles, we recently got engaged, and now we’re planning a wedding!
Fray has been seen in The Unicorn (CBS), Dynasty (CW), Legacies (CW), Daphne & Velma (Hulu), The Florida Files (FX), Rory Scovel Tries Stand Up for the First Time (Netflix), Messiah (Netflix), Brockmire (IFC) and commercials for Taco Bell, Hardees, Natty Light, and the NFL. As a stand up comedian, Fray has shared the stage with Chris Tucker, Hannibal Buress, Katt Williams, Rory Scovel, Ron White and more. Recently, he was apart of the cast of the CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy Showcase 2019. Catherine has been seen in NCIS: New Orleans (CBS) and Frank Lead’s music video “Tonight.” Her break out roles was in Cannes Film Festival acclaimed short films Heartbreak Happy and Trigonometry. We are both proudly represented by 3 Arts Entertainment, CESD, & People Store Talent Agency!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
When we first started working to gather, we learned quickly we had to take time to nurture both our relationship and our business. When you live together and work together, that means you have to make sure to wake up every morning, ready to push each other to work your hardest while also making time for date nights and vacations. We’re still not perfect at it; we’re writing a screenplay while planning a wedding and sometimes, one gets more attention than the other. But every day, we find the balance more and more!
Please tell us about Coki Productions.
At Coki Productions, we are dedicated to demonstrating diversity in film and entertainment. Being an interracial, recently engaged couple, we have made a conscious effort to create content that represents the extremely culturally diverse environments we all experience every day. The goal isn’t to scream, “this is diversity!” Rather, the goal is to show diversity through normalizing it, showing people of all race, gender, and sexuality in “slice-of-life” stories like Good Hair and Pop-Pop Is Dead.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
We would have told ourselves to slow down. To realize that everything you want to happen isn’t going to happen right at this very second. It takes time and you have to give yourself space to fail in order to have space to succeed. A lot of times, we would get big successes or win and breeze past them without taking the time to be genuinely grateful for each little accomplishment. So if we could start over, we wouldn’t change a single thing. We would make sure to cherish those special moments while they’re happening. That’s why now, we celebrate every win and cherish every moment on this beautiful journey together because we’re incredibly lucky to live this life together.
Contact Info:
- Website: poppopisdead.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cokiproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CokiProductions/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cokiproductions
Image Credit:
Lola Scott, Tia Nash, Joey Kopanski, Andrew Bradford, David Noles
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